Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-02-12
THE BRIDGE QUESTION.
To the Chronicle.

BrldgeY We are just In the beginning
Of boom, the excellencies and beau
ties OF GAINESVILLE are being sung on
every hand, people will buy real estate
to-day to sell at an advance of twenty
per cent tomorrow, buildings will spring
up as II by magic and soon the smoke
from two if not more furnaces will
wrap our city ia cloak OF prosperity,
not easily to be lost or to be shaken off.
The agriculturists, the farmers, the live
Stock raisers, after the disastrous expe-
riences of last year will catch second
breath and melted to a greater action
by the alarming vitality shown over
every section OF the south, the advance
OF real estate, the creation OF near by,
and home markets, WIN .oin their indus
try and push to ours and III in perfect
union heave forward the car of mate
rial progress and substantial growth.
There is no cloud now. The sun is
shining. After Rip Van Winkle
sleep, a people have awakened to the fact
that on every side of them reposes
wealth in great, greater and untold
quantities. 1t is bounded by mineral
walls but the talismanic word "confi-
dence, is its magic "seame." We have
wanted confidence, wanted energy, wan
ted push, and now We have them.
They transform everything they touch
They give value to that which had no
value before and enhance the value OF
that which had value before, not fictl-
tious not unreal but the solid value of
increase which thing used and devel-
oped has over that which is not used
nor produces anything. Go in, the lucky
man s the fist, and misfortune rewards
the laggard.
This by the way You ask what has
this to do with freeing lower Red river
Bridge. All. Under other circum-
STAGES and with different conditions, il
might still continue toll bridge with
a ient at justice.
But under these circumstances and
with our present progress, no. We
will not go back in the past and exlm-
inc the reasons which first caused it,
thencontinued it, a toll bridge, for there
is no use. He who discharges his duty
to the present is busy man and would
reap no rewards il he had the time tc
delve in the past.
The bridge should be free to-day be-
cause it would let in the stock dealer
and the farmer, would let in his money
appropriate his confidence and share
| his labor in the discharge of the dut,
of this hour, the upbuilding of our city
1t would allow him without let or hin
drance, TO come in on us, to be one O
us, share in our victories and reap
part of the rewards which have and viii
ever crown the efforts of honest labo
skillfully directed. We need the CO
operation of our fellow citizens nortl
OF our city as well as we also need tina
Of those East, West and South. We
need that appreciation of real estat'
which comes from free exchange 0
products and an easier and more abun
dant money market. Our poorer citi
zens need the produce of their farm
and the fuel of their forests, untaxed
and as cheap as honest labor can give i
to them. And the honest yeomanr
themselves need all the returns of sucl
labor it is possible to realize.
Free the bridge and the appreciation
of real estate will more than compen
safe the city for the direct loss. TIL
direct loss will be swallowed up man
times in a.fuller freer prosperity. 1t
now but rubbish in the onward marc
of our progress and though littl
thing in itself is just annoying enoug
to be removed, and trust / Fam rigt
enough when I intimate to you that
believe that not many suns will pas
over our heads before we see free an
unrestricted traffic between the ente
prising North country, and the ente
prising city in which we live. Yours,
JUSTICE.